For the 17th Sunday after Pentecost the Series B readings are Numbers 11:4-6,10-16, 24-29; James 5:1-20 and Mark 9:38-50. The text chosen to preach about is Numbers 11:11, “So Moses said to the Lord, ‘Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me?’”
Here we have a classic distinction between the theologian of self-glory and the theologian of the cross. The former lives under the Law while the latter lives under the Gospel. One of the defining characteristics of the theologican of self-glory is that he receives his information about God’s attitude toward himself from his experience, not from the Word of God. Moses is clearly showing his old Adam self in criticizing God for his predicament. Not only does Moses conclude that the cries of the people are his affliction but he also concludes that God no longer looks upon Moses favorably because of this burden.
This is a wonderful opportunity to use the Law in pointing out how every member of the congregation is just like Moses. For how many times has a pastor visited with a member who has undergone some kind of crisis only to hear this question, “Pastor, why did I do to deserve this?” The pastor should realize that such an attitude on the part of members is common. For in all their experience in the temporal realm what they do makes a difference in how others regard them. It’s true about children and their obedience, about students and their grades and about employees and their work habits. So why not with God?
Again we find the only two religions in the world: Christianity and everything else. And while everything else attempts to figure out God’s attitude towards them by what is happening in their lives, Christianity reveals God’s true attitude toward us through His holy Word. And not just the promises of the Bible but the Word, Jesus, the Christ. For in Him all the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily. You want to know what God the Father is like? Jesus says, “If you see Me, you see the Father” and “I and the Father are one.”
Faith is that gift from God which trusts the promises of God in spite of the evidence to the contrary. That is, we get our values confused in calling evil good and good evil. One example is our works. From God’s perspective, for us to do a good work and then hand it to God as a way of balancing out our sins is evil. And is it not true how often we look at suffering as an evil when God uses it for our good? Yes, even Moses, the great prophet of God, was prone to thinking with his old Adam rather than his new Man. It is a problem we all have with the solution again found at the foot of the cross of Jesus.
Name:Tom Baker